A500.5.3.RB_MedinaM

My critical thinking abilities have changed for the better throughout this course. Being able to understand what critical thinking is and how to accomplish it has begun to lead me to success in my personal, and professional life. As of right now, I feel like I can express or question things more in depth than before. Learning about the 8 elements of reasoning has helped me understand far more simple and complex subjects in detail. The 8 elements of reasoning have showed me how to break down the subject or topic into more specific questions making it easier to understand what is being asked of me. This has also allowed me to gather more information and details about the subject or topic at hand. For example, for these assignments I have now begun to break down each question in order to comprehend its purpose. Some of the questions I begin with are: What is the purpose of this assignment? What do I need to comprehend, learn, and accomplish? What information do I have or need in order to complete this assignment? Compared to the past, where I would just do the assignment and not worry about whether I truly comprehend it or understand its purpose.

Being able to understand and comprehend what critical thinking is and how to accomplish it through: the 8 elements of reasoning, SEE-I, the difference between claims and facts, the analyzing of a piece of reasoning, the concept of logic, fundamental and powerful concepts, discipline, point of views, and the standards of reasoning has led me to far more success in my class assignments that I have ever had during my bachelor studies. This deeper need to understand, to self-reflect, be aware of my fallacies and of those committing them around me, and be able to reason out certain ideas or concepts has allowed to find logic and comprehension to certain decisions managers have made or make each day. In order for me to make lasting and positive changes of my way of thinking, I need to continue exploring my weaknesses or faulty reasoning’s in order to begin understanding them and begin turning them into strength or something positive. I will also need to continue practicing all the steps of critical thinking, whether it’s through questioning a topic, understanding each detail or just following the 8 elements of reasoning, preferably all of the above. I’m sure that learning about critical thinking and understanding it will continue to lead me to success in both my personal and professional life.

A500.4.3.RB_MedinaM

According to Dr. Sheena Iyengar’s TED video on the art of choosing, she assumes that Americans believe the following when it comes to making choices:

1)    Make your own choices,

2)    More options leads to better choices, and

3)    Never say no to choice

On Dr. Iyengar first assumption, it seems to be used as one person being true to himself or herself, which I agree. Why wouldn’t we make our choice or decision if the outcome directly affects us? In my point of view, if I’m expecting a certain outcome then I must be the one to make the choice. I don’t feel comfortable giving someone the responsibility of making the choice for me because the outcome might turn out to be different than expected. What if the outcome turns out to be the complete opposite of my expectations? Would I be able to fix it? There are too many uncertainties and possibilities of outcomes of our decisions when someone else makes them. To me personally, it’s a sense of having control of the future or of the expected outcome. I can’t control the little bumps I might encounter in the way if someone else has taken charge. That person’s point of view might not be the same as mine. For example, a vegetarian person would go to the supermarket and make their own decision of what to buy according to his or her own eating habits. But a vegetarian person cannot expect someone else to know what his or her eating habits are even when it has been explained to them. Why? Well, because we all have our own ways of doing things, of why we do things, and we all like them to be done a certain way. Maybe the vegetarian person only buys certain brand name products because he or she knows they are made specifically for vegetarians.

Dr. Iyengar second assumption is not one that I completely agree with. In my point of view, the more choices we have to choose from the more the complicated the decision of choosing becomes. Why? People get overwhelmed on the types or varieties that one product has. Some products have better quality; others are made for the price conscious consumer, while others have more choices or options within them. For example, when I go to Wal-Mart, I honestly choose the brands that my parents have bought for me in the past. I once stood in one aisle for over 30mins trying to decide which brand and what type of make-up would look best on me. For me there were too many choices, too many similar colors that I just couldn’t decide what was best for me. Therefore, I don’t think that always having more options results on a better choice, at least not for certain things such as make-up.

The third assumption made by Dr. Iyengar is one that I personally agree with. As she states in the TED video, it goes against everything that we have been thought growing up. It goes against everything we believe in, and even against our fundamental principles. How can we be true to ourselves and become our own person or individual if we are not given the choice to choose freely? From the time that we are born we are given choices, such as either we behave or we continue on “time-out”. The simple notion of being given choices allows us to shape who we are and who we want to be. For example, in the past parents wanted their child to become either a lawyer or doctor. Now in the modern world, parents have allowed their children to choose what they want to study and what they want to do when they grow up. In your opinion, would we be as successful as we are today if we had told our parents to choose our future for us because we said no to having choices? Would it have been the correct future or choice for us?

A500.3.4.RB_MedinaM

The Jack R. Hunt Library – Worldwide site consists of many different scholarly informational sources of any topic. It’s just like the city library but online. This online library, made for ERAU Worldwide students, allows students from anywhere around the world to find scholarly articles or books at any given time of day. Any searched information can be found in 6 different forms. It can vary from books with hard covers, to full text resources to even DVDs and videos. If by any chance the searched information isn’t available or found, there’s an “Ask a librarian” help area located at the right side of the main page. The “Ask a librarian” area allows students to call, chat or send an email to the worldwide librarians asking for the unavailable information. Typically, librarians respond within 48 business hours with at least 5 different sources of the asked information. On the main page, students can also recommend websites, articles, or any new material to be available in the library. They can also access websites recommended by the librarians. For example, they can find links about any subject such as Aviation, Engineering, Business and so on. The Hunt library also allows students to request and borrow information from other libraries.

When using websites, such as Google or Bing, to find research on broad topics, too many results come up with just the searched term in them. Google can be very handy for certain quick need-to-know information that might not necessarily be needed for creditability purposes. Unfortunately for students, many of these articles or websites shown as results are not creditable websites or peer-reviewed articles for proper research. For example, when I search the word leadership on Google, I find a variety of results. These results vary from the definition of the word, to quotes, to even magazines with articles containing the word leadership. Websites such as Wikipedia containing “everything” about the term leadership come up. Some students use this site for research purposes, when in reality non-experts of the subject have posted the information. Some users of Wikipedia also manipulate the information for their own purposes. When I search leadership in the Hunt Library, I find many peer-reviewed articles on leadership and even about the different leadership styles studied. Therefore, it is always best to use creditable websites, such as the Hunt library, to find creditable, peer-reviewed information on the topic of research.

As a graduate student of the Masters of Science in Leadership program, I will find the Jack R. Hunt Library – Worldwide to be very useful towards my studies. This library is full of ready to use scholarly information available at any time. It saves the students time and a trip to the local library to find articles and books that in the past have already been researched and reviewed. All of the articles and books found through this library are creditable, and peer-reviewed information made for students by experts. Therefore, throughout my studies I will be taking advantage of the Hunt library sources to find creditable sources for my research. A library always beats Google on creditability on any topic any day!

A500.2.3.RB_MedinaM

What are some standards that are most important in your life? How did you acquire them? Have they changed over the years?

In order to answer the above questions, I must have a clear definition of the word standard. A standard is a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment (dictionary.com). To ask what standards are of most importance in my life is to ask what principles I grew up with. Growing up my parents always taught me to be respectful, responsible, and honest.

The definition of respect varies to all of us, but at the end to be respectful is to be courteous, and polite to those around us. My parents always taught me to be respectful to my elders. A good personal example of this is how much respect my brother and me give to our grandparents. When entering our grandparent’s house we always greet them with “Buenos dias, Bendicion! Como estan?” When translated to English it says good morning, we ask for their blessings, and then ask how they are. We have always been taught that conversations held between elders’ stays between elders. This meant that anyone young not belonging to the conversation must stay out of the conversation, keep quiet, or go into the next room to play. Like Albert Einstein once said: “Speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.” Give respect and you should receive respect.

To be responsible is to have the capacity to make decisions and be held accountable for the consequences of your actions. In my perspective, a responsible person can turn out to be a reliable person. In other words, the responsible person can be trusted with important matters and/or decisions. It’s important to show kids the meaning of responsibility. Whether it’s by giving them pet responsibilities or chores around the house while growing, these small tasks can go a long way. Like my parents have always said “To be responsible is to live honorably.” To live in honesty is to live with honorable principles and intentions. My parents have always told me to return what doesn’t belong to me, even if it resulted on me crying the rest of the day. Finding a wallet full of cash in front of public place might tempt some of us to not return the cash. Instead of giving in to temptation, I remembered what my parents taught me growing up. Therefore, I went to the nearest police station and returned the wallet. Like Thomas Jefferson said: “Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdoms.”

Reflecting on my decisions and actions, I don’t think my standards have changed over the years. I’m not saying I’m perfect but I do try my best to be respectful, responsible, and honest. There’s times in life were challenges might threaten or force us to change the way we behave and act. I feel like even during these times I have maintained a good posture with the standards I have been raised with and acquired over the years.

A500.1.5.RB_MedinaM

Intellectual perseverance is the need to learn more about a subject despite the opposition of others, nonconstructive criticism, difficulties, frustrations, and obstacles encountered. It’s the need to struggle with unresolved questions over a period of time in order to answer and gain greater understanding of the subject at hand (criticalthinking.org). In other words, it’s the willingness and need to learn more.

Intellectual perseverance will be very important during my graduate studies of Leadership. For the past 2 years, it has been my need and goal to understand what leadership is all about. In my experience, I have been handed tasks of leadership positions in which the results have always been great. Unfortunately, my personal fear of failure or misunderstandings of what is expected of me as a leader has held me back from various promotions. Various supervisors have told me that I am capable of accomplishing their tasks as supervisors easier or better than what they care to do. So why do I fear that I will not have the capacity of fulfilling all the requirements or tasks performed by a supervisor? Some of these tasks I have already taken the initiative and responsibility to fulfill on my own.

As you can see, I have already begun to use intellectual perseverance to fulfill my need to understand and learn about leadership and what does it take to become a good leader. I have taken the initial step to attend graduate courses, in which I have enrolled through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the Masters of Science in Leadership program. To me personally, this program will allow me to gain a deeper understanding of what is the meaning of leadership. I will be able to learn through other people’s experience and outcomes of the issues they have encountered as leaders; get into scholarly discussions about leadership; what is expected of a leader; how can a leader overcome everyday frustrations or difficulties presented in the workplace; and even how can a leader motivate others to take on more tasks and responsibilities. It’s like this quote by H. Jackson Brown: “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not through strength but by perseverance.”

Taking this quote into observation, a good leader must be able to understand, define, analyze, diagnose, solve problems, lead others, and more. Others observe a leader for guidance, whether it is for projects, problems or issues. A good leader accepts his or her shortcomings by learning about them and by later turning them into strength or an opportunity to learn and persevere in the tasks at hand. A leader continues to push, continues carrying on with the tasks given over coming any frustrations or obstacles encountered.

As I progress in my studies, I’m sure I will encounter many frustrations and obstacles while learning about leadership. In case one gets frustrated just take a deep breath, think things through and press on. But I must warn you, if one feels trapped or unable to answer unsettled questions, seek help! At least that’s what I do when I feel lost while searching for directions to a restaurant. There is nothing wrong with seeking help from those around you. I can assure you, the reader, that my willingness and need to learn about leadership and all its aspects will not stop here.